UN chief Antonio Guterres called for political solution to Korean crisis

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres speaks at a news conference ahead of the 72nd United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, September 13, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Segar

Vastavam web: UN chief Antonio Guterres has called for a political solution to the current situation in the Korean peninsula, which has worsened in recent months in the wake of series of ballistic missile and nuclear tests by Pyongyang.”The solution can only be political. Military action could cause devastation on a scale that would take generations to overcome,” Guterres said.Noting that nuclear and missile tests by the North Korea have created great instability and tension on the Korean peninsula, throughout the region and beyond, the UN Secretary General said unity in the Security Council is critical.

Meanwhile in an interview to Atlantic Council, a top American think-tank, Nicholas Burns, a former top American diplomat said that the new sanctions imposed by UN Security Council on North Korea are not enough.”The sanctions are a step forward, but they are not significant enough. It is disappointing that Russia and China will not agree to tougher sanctions because that is what is required,” he said.”We are in a new and dangerous phase of the crisis following the apparent hydrogen bomb test and also the ballistic missile firing by North Korea over Hokkaido,” Burns said.Noting that the Chinese have a direct interest here, he said, but they are hesitating in deepening their own leverage and coercion against North Korea.”It may be that China worries that a dissolution of the North Korean regime could lead to a flow of North Korean refugees into China, ” Burns said.